Public Health (PBH)

This course compares the organization, structure and function of health care delivery, public health and regulatory systems across national and international settings. Discussion and analysis of the evolution of healthcare delivery since the 18th century will facilitate the exploration of public health history, philosophy and values. The inclusion of interdisciplinary primary documents will allow for the explanation of social, political and economic determinants of health and how they contribute to population health and health inequities. Activities and lecture material will cover the structural elements of healthcare systems including different types of providers. Discussions of their roles and trends in specialization will cover the science of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention in population health, including health promotion and screening. The role of the primary health system stakeholders will be discussed with specific attention paid to the government.

This course introduces the graduate student to the field of public health through lectures, readings and experiential learning. Skills gained in this course will be useful to those working in public health, healthcare and related fields. We will begin by discussing the history and basic principles of public health and present an overview of a range of public health challenges including infectious disease, chronic disease and violence. The course will prepare students to be effective and accurate academic writers. We will cover the appropriate use of APA format, public health communication and evidence (literature) identification. We will discuss the social determinants of health, health disparities and health equity. The course orients the student to the role of the Public Health Service as well as federal, state, and local public health departments and agencies in the US. The course introduces key national public health initiatives such as Healthy People 2020 and 2030, as well as an overview of public health research, maternal and child health, environmental health, substance use, and violence as a public health issue. This course addresses the links between public health and healthcare, health policy, law and health behavior. Finally, this course introduces the student to the public health literature and exposes the student to public health professionals. The course will address current public health issues as they arise.

Addresses behavioral, social, environmental and cultural factors related to individual and population health, and health disparities over the life span. Examines research and practice that contribute to the development, administration and evaluation of public health programs and policies that promote and sustain healthy lives and environments for individuals and populations.

Introduces basics of descriptive and inferential statistics, including sampling and probability, in estimation and statistical decisions as used in public health. Applications include estimation of confidence intervals; testing statistical hypotheses for population means, proportions, and variances; and use of non-parametric tests. Utilizes Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) as software tool to enter and analyze public health data. Uses Philadelphia regional data from the Public Health Management Corporation as basis for student projects.

Introduces basics of descriptive and inferential statistics, including sampling, probability, and regression. The course will emphasize interpretation of statistical results, data management and generation of tables and graphs that can inform reports, evaluations, and quality improvement effort in the public health space. Applications include estimation of confidence intervals; testing statistical hypotheses for population means, proportions, and variances; and use of non-parametric tests. Utilizes MS Excel as a software tool to enter and analyze public health data. Uses Philadelphia regional data from the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) and CDC National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) data as basis for student assignments and projects.

Introduces epidemiology and its application in public health. Addresses basic epidemiologic terminology and definitions. Presents public health problems in terms of magnitude, person, time, place, and disease frequency. Examines correlation measures between risk factors and disease outcomes; strengths and weaknesses of standard epidemiologic study designs; and ethical and legal issues related to epidemiologic data. Students calculate basic epidemiology measures, draw inferences from epidemiologic reports, and use information technology to access, evaluate, and interpret public health data.

Introduces environmental health sciences. Addresses social, political and economic factors that influence environmental health, including identification of major pollutants, their sources and adverse health effects. Examines general mechanisms of toxicity following environmental exposures, including the impact of such exposures on the health of children. Studies risk assessment of environmental hazards and surveys government regulations and their significance in protecting human health. Specific topics include solid, liquid, and hazardous waste, food safety, water and air pollution, and climate change.

Policy is essential to the promotion of population health. Policy encompasses a wide range of strategies and tactics for changing behavior and altering environments. This course explores the instrumental use of policy. The course focuses specifically on accurately defining problems, which is a key step in policy development, and understanding the potential value and limits of different policy approaches. Key to this second focus is an exploration of different mechanisms of effect including, for example, the role of deterrence and situational strategies of behavior change. This course examines challenges of contingency and offers practical guidance for assessing whether a policy that worked in one place will work equally well in another. The course also emphasizes the need to anticipate and evaluate differential and inequitable effects of policies between different groups.

This course presents a fundamental framework for health research methods, including critical analysis of public health and health services research literature. Each research method/technique and associated topic areas will be presented through lecture, and reinforced through small group exercises and homework. You will be developing a research proposal this semester. As such, I encourage you to select a research topic area of interest. The skills you gain in proposal writing will serve you in many different contexts in the future. Course will include an overview of the field of health services research as it applies to public health, with the capacity for critical appraisal of the literature and with the ability to design a basic public health/health services research project.

Introduces health communication and relevant theories and models of individual and social change. Topics include planning, implementation, and evaluation of health communication and social marketing campaigns; cultural competency; health literacy; skills in patient care communication; role of communication in health care and public health promotion and disease prevention; media advocacy; mass media and health; entertainment-education; and the similarities and differences between U.S.-based and global health communication. Strategies in health communication and social marketing are reviewed across the levels of the social ecological model, including at the interpersonal, community, organizational, and policy levels.

Introduces philosophy, techniques and uses of common forms of qualitative research with an emphasis on data collection and analysis. Addresses strengths and limitations of qualitative research and ethical issues surrounding its use. Students practice qualitative research methods through participant observation, fieldwork, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, and case studies.

Law structures everyday experience in ways that profoundly influence the quality and length of life. The primary role of law is specifying the duties and powers of government. But law also regulates a wide range of activity between private individuals and groups. This course introduces legal and ethical concepts essential to the use of law and legal reform in health promotion. Using current examples, the course introduces the authority of government to act, the limits of government action, and the ethical implications when that authority and those limits collide. The course also explores the distribution of power and responsibility between levels and branches of government as well as several legal topics of specific importance.

Explores major issues in global health from the perspective of multiple health disciplines. Emphasizes global/local aspects of public health. Focuses on issues in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) including global burden of disease; social, structural, and environmental determinants of health; health and socio-economic development; advocacy, policy, trade and health; and health and human rights. Discusses global health from perspectives of non-communicable diseases, the built environment, water and sanitation, nutrition, tobacco, maternal/child health, unintentional and intentional injuries, One Health, and communicable diseases such as HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Examines the roles of colonization, cultural humility, health care delivery systems and global institutions as they relate to worldwide health issues. Students in this class will be responsible for all the material covered during this term. This will include material addressed through activities, both in and out of the classroom, as well as homework, readings, and other assignments. At the end of this course, students will have a broader understanding of and the ability to actively apply the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion to world health issues.

Explores cultural competency as it applies to health/human service practitioners. Facilitates development of cultural competence and humility in one's self, colleagues, health service and public health work environments. Reviews literature related to diversity and cultural competence as it relates to disparities in health status and access to quality care. Applies students' knowledge and personal reflection to their professional work and develops an individual or community health initiative that reflects cultural humility and competency. Students also develop an action plan that promotes diversity and cultural awareness in professional development and organizational settings.

Focuses on human rights and the public health of Refugees, Immigrants, and the Internally Displaced. Begins with an overview of how universal human rights are described and upheld by international human rights legislation and key global and national organizations. Analyzes unique populations that have been personally affected or whose story accurately demonstrates an aspect of human rights on a global scale. Includes populations with both historic (e.g., native Americans) or current (e.g., Syria and Yemen) perspectives. Utilizes multiple methodologies of case studies, IQ2, debates, 'flipped classroom,' documentaries, videos, photojournalism, team and individual projects and presentations

Advocacy is critically important to population health because effective and equitable policy does not emerge naturally. We have to work actively in multiple roles to ensure that healthy policy is designed, implemented, and sustained. This course introduces those roles and provides practical guidance about how to work effectively in them. The course is broadly focused on the challenge of changing government policy, but the concepts and assignments apply equally well to efforts to change institutional policy.

Program planning, implementation, and evaluation are essential skills for a public health professional. Students will learn to perform various roles in an organization that are associated with program planning, implementation, and evaluation, such as: assess and prioritize community needs; identify evidence-based best practices for choosing interventions; develop and practice writing SMART objectives and logic models; understand how to engage and communicate with stakeholders and community members; as well as how to organize a project budget, staffing plan and timeline. In addition, students will learn how to develop implementation and evaluation plans, including process, impact, and outcome evaluation.

Advanced presentation and analysis of behavioral, social and cultural factors related to individual and population health and health disparities over the life span. Critically examine individual, interpersonal, and community level evidence-based research and practice that contribute to development, administration, and evaluation of public health intervention programs and policies that promote and sustain healthy lives. Focuses heavily on published literature and intensive class discussion.

This course will provide an overview of the contemporary challenges in addressing substance use as a public health problem. Students will learn about the personal and environmental factors that often contribute to substance use, as well as the downstream consequences, including HIV and hepatitis C. Students will also learn public health strategies to address substance use, including primary prevention and harm reduction. Finally, issues around drug policy at the local, state and federal level will be discussed. While this course will use opioids and the crisis in Philadelphia as the primary case study, other drugs will be touched upon as well. The course combines lecture, interactive class exercises, and group discussion.

This course will cover the fundamentals of data wrangling and visualization using the statistical programming language R. Specifically, it will explore how analytic reports can be made using R Markdown and how packages within the tidyverse (notably dplyr and ggplot2) can be used to work with large, real-world public health datasets.

Presents general approaches to multivariate statistical analysis, including elaboration and control of confounding, and key multivariate statistical analysis techniques, i.e., analysis of variance; bivariate linear regression and correlation; multiple linear regression; multiple and partial correlation; and binary and multinomial logistic regression. Analyzes selected datasets, i.e., 2012 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey performed by the Public Health Management Corporation, and federal datasets, e.g., NHANES.

Builds on PBH 506. Presents examples of epidemiological theory and methods such as: Multivariable analysis, logistic regression, sampling and weighting methods, cohort analysis, confounding, and effect modification.

This course utilizes fundamentals of epidemiology and applies them specifically to infectious diseases. Basic principles of infectious disease epidemiology, transmission, prevention and control will be covered along with methods and resources to perform associated disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, and observational epidemiological research.

Introduction to mapping and analyzing health related data using a geographic information system (GIS). Mapping exercises address substantive health care policy and planning issues such as cancer morbidity and mortality, health patterns of uninsured and poor populations, and environmental hazards.

This is part 1 of a 2-semester course. This course will provide accelerated students an important opportunity to demonstrate a holistic understanding of the public health field and the important link between public health, population health and healthcare. Part 1 of this 2 semester course will provide support to accelerated students in the spring term of the program in order to assure they can process, integrate, refine and apply the tools and skills they are acquiring in their MPH core courses, their elective courses and the skills they are developing during their Applied Practice Experience (APE), formally referred to as clerkship. Additionally, this course will provide students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of programmatic, and individual goal specific, public health competencies. The course will address identification and evaluation of evidence to inform public health practice. Additionally, the course will focus on synthesizing and translating evidence to inform practice and improve communication to the lay community. Students will demonstrate integration of knowledge through the completion of authentic individual and group assignments.

This is part 2 of a 2-semester course. This course will provide accelerated students an important opportunity to demonstrate a holistic understanding of the public health field and the important link between public health and healthcare. Part 2 will provide support to accelerated students in the final term of the program to assure they can process, integrate, refine and apply the tools and skills they are acquiring in their MPH core courses, their elective courses and during their Applied Practice Experience (APE), also referred to as 'clerkship'. Additionally, this course will provide students an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of programmatic, and individual goal specific, public health competencies. The course will address leadership skill development, identification and evaluation of evidence to inform public health practice. The course will focus on synthesizing and translating evidence to inform practice and improve communication to the lay community. Students will demonstrate integration of knowledge through the completion of authentic individual and group assignments. A secondary objective of this course is to prepare students for the comprehensive exam.

The Capstone Integrated Learning Experience, Part-1 (C-ILE) course provides students with support as they prepare their Capstone Proposal. The class sessions cover the scope and requirements of the C-ILE Project, the JCPH C-ILE Project policies, procedures, and requirements for completing the MPH degree, and public-speaking and professional presentation skills.

This is part 2 of the Capstone-ILE experience (C-ILE). This course will provide LPHT students an important opportunity to demonstrate a holistic understanding of the public health field and the important link between public health, population health and healthcare. This course is designed to support students as they move their individually designed projects (designed, approved and begun in PBH 613) to completion. Students will be expected to draw on all their coursework as they prepare a manuscript, poster and podium presentation describing their work. At the end of PBH 614 students present their C-ILE work to the Jefferson Community and other interested parties.

This course is designed to expand student knowledge about social factors that are known or suspected to influence population health. These factors include, among others, race, gender, socioeconomic status, and social support. Understanding how to talk and think about these social factors is essential to effective participation in public health research and practice. The course will focus on the conceptual and theoretical basis of these social factors, exploring both their measurement in epidemiologic research, and the mechanisms by which they are thought to affect health. Potential strategies for ameliorating social determinants of disease and disability – and particularly those relying on legal and policy reform – will be discussed along with their associated political impediments.

This applied graduate-level course provides an in-depth exploration of the philosophy, techniques, and applications of qualitative research. Students will engage with both foundational and innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry, with a strong emphasis on the design, collection, and analysis of data as well as reporting findings. The course examines the strengths and limitations of qualitative research, as well as the ethical, cultural, and methodological considerations that guide responsible practice. Learners will critically evaluate the role of qualitative methods in generating knowledge, interpreting human experience, and informing practice and policy. Through experiential learning, students will gain hands-on practice with diverse data collection techniques including participant observation, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, freelisting, photo-elicitation, and case studies. Students will be expected to assess, choose, and apply the developing skills in methodological decision-making, reflexivity, and systematic analysis. The course also integrates participation in The Qualitative Institute, providing opportunities to connect with a broader community of scholars and practitioners. Enrollment in this course is limited and requires special approval to ensure focused mentorship and guidance.

The MPH C-APE is a zero credit supervised field experience, which is required by all graduate public health programs accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH). It is integral to the preparation of an effective public health practitioner by providing the student with the opportunity to integrate newly acquired public health competencies. To successfully meet this program requirement, the student must complete a minimum of 40 hours in an approved practice setting and by attending approved community events, and participate in an approved interprofessional activity. There is a $600 course fee when registering for PBH 651.

Dual degree medical (MD, DO) and Advanced Standing students will attend presentations where they will hear from dual-trained guest speakers about how to integrate their public health training with their clinical training. Additionally, students will be assessed on the below competencies through a series of interactive and independent assignments.